By Scott Reece

The Cougars may have had only half number of points the Warriors had at game’s end, but for most of the game, they played on equal footing with Magna Vista.

Both teams matched up and down the field for most of the night; however the Cougars fell short, in a loss 42-21.

Magna Vista’s QB Dryus Hairston started the scoring when he scrambled in for a 14 yard touchdown on the Warrior’s first possession. However, the Cougars responded with an impressive drive of their own; the drive of 8 straight rushing plays led to a 16 yard touchdown by Will Spowl–the first of his three scores–and tied the game up at 7. The Cougars appeared to have stopped the Warriors on their next possession, but a 4th down conversion led to another score for Magna Vista that made it 14-7 at the end of the first quarter.

The Warriors scored early in the second quarter when the Magna Vista’s Hairston threw a 17-yard touchdown to Jacob Kerrick, a play set up by a long pass by Hairston a few plays earlier. That made the score 21-7, but the “never-say-die” Cougars fought to stay in the game. After throwing an interception, QB/DB Frankie LaComa immediately made up for the turnover when he forced a fumble on the next play. The play set up Spowl’s second touchdown that cut the lead to 21-14. But the Cougars couldn’t stop the Warriors offense from scoring on their next drive, and trailed at halftime 28-14.

On the opening drive on the second half, the Cougars again looked like they had stopped Magna Vista, but the Warriors fooled them on a fake punt that resulted in a 60 yard touchdown by Kerrick, putting the score at 35-14. The Cougars continued to scratch and claw their way back into the ballgame, when CB Chase Jessup came up with a key interception and returned it mid-field. The ensuring drive led to a short touchdown run by Spowl on a 4th and goal making it a 35-21 score. The Cougars defense forced the “3 and out,” and made the Warriors punt from their own end zone. The Cougars drove to mid-field, but they were unable to convert a 4th and 1 play, and lost the ball on downs. That was as close as the Cougars would get, as the Warriors scored a late touchdown to make the final score 42-21.

According to Sprowl, clearly the offensive player of the game for the Cougars, the team has a lot of players who ” want to win and never give up.” He also said that the team needs to finish better. Coach David Morrison, echoed those sentiments and said the Cougars fell “just short,” but he was proud of his team. He also feels “the team is getting better every day” but just “ran out of gas” to the Magna Vista team, Morrison said. The Cougars (1-3) will play Friday, September 28 at home against GW Danville (3-1).